Investigating Politics:

Spotlight on Statehouse and Local Reporting program

James V. Grimaldi
james.grimaldi@wsj.com
@jamesvgrimaldi
 Iron
Triangle

www.ushistory.org

American Government, W.W. Norton & Co.

http://hippocampusgovernment.blogspot.com/2009/11/iron-triangle.html
 Connecting the dots
• Campaign Finance
○ Donor reports
○ Leadership PACS
• Ethics and financial disclosure reports
○ Determine who holds ethics filings:
○ In states, it is usually an ethics commission or
Secretary of State.
○ at federal level, it is Office of Government Ethics or
US Congress (Clerk of the House; Secretary of the
Senate.)
○ Online Services: www.Followthemoney.org
www.OpenSecrets.org
• Legislation, co-sponsors, committee work
• Constituent services: Letters to federal agencies --
FOIAable
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 Rep. Duncan Hunter

Congressman says unauthorized credit card use followed

son’s purchase
BY MORGAN COOK
APRIL 5, 2016

The Federal Election Commission is questioning

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, for his use of campaign
funds to pay for video games on 68 separate occasions —
something the congressman is attributing to a mistake by
his son, followed by several unauthorized charges.

https://youtu.be/fR8gCS9CgRg
 Read the reports; ask questions
Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip
Halpern and Morgan Cook
The campaign also spent money at
Disneyland — $229 at the Star
Trader gift shop in Tomorrowland
for “food/beverages.”
A spokesman for the Disneyland
told the Union-Tribune the only
edible items the store sells are Pez
candy and a Star Wars-themed Rice
Krispy treat.
 Some other places to check
• Rulemaking dockets (
regulations.gov for most
federal)
• Lawsuits, depositions,
exhibits
• Criminal court records,
• Property records (usually
county recorder of
records.)
• Courthouses – PACER,
online dockets
• Corporate records: SEC,
Secretary of State,
Opencorporates
• Charities -- tax returns (citizenaudit.org, guidestar.org)
 Think of all
possible or
related
documents to get
• Hearing transcripts
• Inspectors general and audit
reports (ignet.gov)
• GAO and CRS reports
• Budgets; OMB filings
• Securities records (SEC.gov), business records
• Emails, correspondence, desk calendars, entrance/exit logs
• Flight logs and manifests for aircraft
• Congressional correspondence to federal agencies
 Spectrum of stories
●*
● Basic feature profile on background, credentials,
accomplishments
● Showing patrons, donors as an indication of how they
will perform as politicians
● Finding conflicts of interest that would compromise
their work
● Ethical violations of law or policy
● Corruption: Pay to play or bribery
Synthesizing your research
● Find themes and patterns
● Look for cause-effect in your timeline
● Compare and contrast
○ Add data from different sets into
timeline
○ e.g., Hillary: Firms that lobbied State
Department and gave to Clinton
Foundation
○ e.g., George W. Bush, pioneers &
rangers crossed with appointments,
favors
Backgrounding nominees

Rep. Tom Price R-Ga.

nominated for HHS Secretary
 Where would you look?
● Campaign contributions

● Financial Disclosures

● Legislation

● Senate Committee vets

nominees for
confirmation, publishes
report
 Finding the records

http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-
search.aspx
 What
does he
do?
Committee assignments:
● Chairman, House Budget Committee, which played an
influential role in shaping health legislation.
● Member, House Ways and Means Committee, Health
Subcommittee, which oversees Medicare.
● Member of the Republicans’ Congressional Health
Care Caucus that has called for repeal of the Obama
administration’s landmark health overhaul.
Compare:
Financial
Disclosure
to
Legislation
 Pick for Health Secretary
Traded Medical Stocks While
in House
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Health and Human
Services Department traded more than $300,000 in shares of health-related
companies over the past four years while sponsoring and advocating
legislation that potentially could affect those companies’ stocks.
Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican, bought and sold stock in about 40
health-care, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies since 2012, including
a dozen in the current congressional session, according to a Wall Street
Journal review of hundreds of pages of stock trades he filed with Congress.
In the same two-year period, he has sponsored nine and co-sponsored 35
health-related bills in the House.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-pick-for-health-secretary-trad
ed-medical-stocks-while-in-house-1482451061
 Quid
pro
quo?

In 2000, an Indian tribe and a gambling services company sent

$50,000 in checks to a Washington think tank, covering most of the cost
a trip to Britain taken by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)
Two months later, DeLay voted against a bill opposed by the tribe
And company. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff arranged for the donations
went along on the journey
Many buckets to make gifts
1)Campaign Contributions
a)Individual campaign
b)Super PAC
c)Leadership PAC
d)Party committee
e)Outside money (independent PACS)
2) Lobbying
3)Spouse work, business deals
4)Family foundation or charity
5)Children – jobs, gifts
 Compounding Pharmacies
• In 2012, a tainted painkilling steroid from the New
England Compounding Center exposed 14,000
patients to fungal meningitis, sickened 203
people and
killed 15 people
 Who represents them?
STEP ONE:
Lobbyist?
✓ Check:
OpenSecrets:
No New England
Compounding
Center
✓ Check: Trade
groups
Not PhrMa
member
✓ Check:
Associations, International Academy of Compounding
Google Pharmacists; www.iacprx.org/